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How do I disable my Windows Startup sound?

When I turn on my notebook computer, there is a sound or "music" as it powers up...just as I see the logo...and before it gets to Windows... How do I disable this "sound"/"music"...? It's very distracting in a business meeting and/or classroom.

Dave's Answer:

Actually, it's pretty easy to disable the Windows login sound and related sounds. That's done by going to Start --> Settings --> Control Panels then selecting the Control Panel "Sounds and Audio Devices".

Click on the "Sounds" tab and it'll look like this:

Scroll down just a bit and you'll find Start Windows and Windows Logon:

Windows Sound and Audio Devices: Start Windows

Those are the two you want to change or disable entirely. To change them, click on the pop-up menu that currently says "Windows XP Startup" on my screenshot above.

To disable them is a bit unintuitive: You need to also click on the pop-up menu, but this time you're interested in the top option:

Windows Sound and Audio Devices: New Sound: None

Select (None), click on "Apply" and you should be able to restart your computer with considerably less interruption next time you're in a meeting or at a class.

Good luck!

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Comments

I have a just recently purchased sony vaio laptop, and it plays a little jingle as soon as I turn the computer on, before it starts booting up. This happens when my computer is set on mute, and I don't see any options on that window to disable that specific sound. I'm going to be using my laptop in college next year, and I don't want to create a distraction in the classroom. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Posted by: Leslie at June 3, 2006 10:40 PM

Hold F2 while the computers booting and you'll enter BIOS mode. From there go to advanced and turn off the logo thing. Hope this helps.

Posted by: Seth at June 11, 2006 11:42 PM

Thanks. This worked like a charm. It is (was) annoying as h*ll to have my laptop blast the Windows logon tune each time I logged on.

Good thing my automated feedback poster can do simple math! Bahaha. 19+16=34.

Posted by: Bill at October 17, 2006 8:27 AM

Thanks. This worked like a charm. It is (was) annoying as h*ll to have my laptop blast the Windows logon tune each time I logged on.

Good thing my automated feedback poster can do simple math! Bahaha. 19+16=34.

Posted by: Bill at October 17, 2006 8:27 AM

Do you know a way to turn the thing off if the Start menu's Control Panel button is not there (admin-disabled)?

Posted by: Lighty at March 19, 2007 3:57 PM

i have some problems for video encoding. i have using imtoo encoder but they not work completely because restart my computer. what can i do please tel me

Posted by: meera at April 6, 2007 6:47 AM

I changed my start up sound to an edited speech of illidan from the warcraft burnng cruscade movie thing. It's a wav file just like the orignal start up sound. Well when i turn my computer on, it works....but only plays like the first 4 seconds of it. Is there a time limit on how long the startup sound has to be? And can i change it?

Posted by: Persion # 0 at May 7, 2007 3:32 PM

The sound was pretty annoying and usually would disturb my sleeping child.

If I were to search at on Windows help, it would have to taken me years to find this information
Thanks for the putting it on the web, easy to find over google.

Posted by: amith at July 30, 2007 11:51 PM

hey umm i have a prob with my comp.. it plays random music on the startup and keeps on continuing till i turn the sound off! how do i make it go away!!!?

Posted by: Ashleigh at September 17, 2007 5:59 PM

the problems is my windows startup sounds is disable.i already activate the sound option in the control panel->windows default scheme sounds..can you help me?i use Intel pentium Dualcore 2,66 gHz,windows XP Service pack 1.....you can email me at miftahhur_rahman@yahoo.com....thanks...

Posted by: MiFTahhur at March 9, 2008 11:23 AM

hi my problem is how to change the logon/logoff sound.

Posted by: gopi at March 16, 2008 3:12 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

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I do have a comment, now that you mention it!